Burnin' Up

Not sure if the title of this post refers to the tournament or my feelings about the drama some teammates feel the need to start the day before we set up.  I won't go into it here, but staying together as a team is likely to get tested sooner than later.

Zio man had to skip practice last weekend when I traveled for my Mom's funeral.  John let me know that Lucy had come into season, so I think Luna is going to run with Speeding Sheepdogs as the height dog.  I'll have to run her, so Katie gets to run Zio.  I hope she remembers to bring gloves!  ;)

I'll miss running Zio, but I hope he does great for Katie.  This will be his first time running as start dog since April when he had started limping.  With everything that is going on, I'm not as excited about this weekend as I should be.  Zio will have fun regardless!

Getting Better

I thought practice was a little better this week.  I ran him in the open before practice again and his turns were a lot tighter than last week.  Props consisted of a gutter down the middle and one on the exit side to force a tighter turn.  He looked really good from distance.

I gave him an extra session running DGW passing with Solo, since Jeep was AWOL.  On box work, I basically did the warmup routine of starting at the box while someone else releases him.  I was a little slow the one time and he came of the box too fast and grabbed my hand instead of the tug.  Fortunately, he let me keep the hand and regripped on the tug.

During team runs, he ran for Katie while I ran Luna.  She said he did the first ones fine, then got a little wide, and then bobbled the last two.  He seems to be running hard and didn't seem to notice that I was in the lane with Luna, so that's a positive sign.  We'll keep working on the turn, but it's just too blasted hot in the evenings to do much of anything with him at home.

Practice Results

A decent practice for Zio yesterday.  We set up early and did an extra session on the box with just the gutter.  He was turning VERY wide, so I had to add more "junk" to get him to turn tight again.  His last turn was perfect.

During his regular sessions, he ran twice with the Speeding Sheepdogs (Zio, Maverick, Lucy, and Wisp).  The first time, we tried to have Katie racing Luna in the other lane while I ran Zio, but Luna isn't ready for someone else to run her.  The thought here is that if Lucy comes into heat at the wrong time, Zio and Luna may need to be on the same team.  Katie and I switched up so that I could run Luna, while she ran Zio.  He did okay for Katie, but the props kept changing at the box and he had gone back to doing wide turns.  He was also mouthing the ball on the wall back instead of running hard to catch me. In hindsight, I should have explained what props should be there and let her verify before each run.

The other racing session was with Speeding Sheepdogs again (wish we had Jean-Luc to practice with too).  I ran Zio this time, since we raced against Cruise Control.  Zio did pretty good.  Although he was tending to straddle the gutter going to the box, he made nice, tight turns.

His box work was more of the grab the tug as soon as you turn off the box exercise.  He seems to like this work and I think it helps him be tight off the turn.

Happy 4th Birthday!

Never in my wildest dreams did I suspect the changes that Zio would make in my life. Not only did he introduce me to canine sports, but he became my inseparable buddy.  Always waiting at the door to enthusiastically welcome me home each day, he can make any day better.  He has been incredibly athletic in his drive to compete, whether it is frisbees or flyball.  The years seem to be passing too quickly!  Happy Birthday Zio!!

Good Practice!

Zio had his first full practice since mid-April today.  His turn had reverted to more of a punch and grab rather than a swimmers turn at the tournament, so we went back to basics with the gutter dividing the lane.  During box work, he did an awesome job of sweeping to the right of the gutter to do his turn and it looked really good.  During full runs with Maverick and Lucy, he kept his turn, but was tending to straddle the gutter going to the box.  I'll have to see what props I can add without putting too much garbage in front of the box.

The other exercise we did was to do the warm up turn at the box.  Someone else releases him from about 20 feet, while I line up at the box.  The idea is that I start off running just as he gets to the box so that he turns really quick to grab the tug while it's still there.  

The championship team is going to come from Zio, Maverick, Lucy, Jean-Luc, Wisp, and Luna.  Luna is pretty much a plan B in case Lucy comes into heat at the wrong time for the championships.  If that happens, it may influence whether I run Zio.  It could happen that I'll have to have someone else run Zio while I run Luna.  Then again, it could work out the other way around.  Plan A is Lucy as our height dog though, so let's hope that works out.